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Photograph capturing one of the hardships faced by families during the Dust Bowl--starving cattle. It was taken in Kansas City, Kansas, by the Kansas Emergency Relief Committee, a state agency working to relieve the financial burdens of families suffering during the droughts of the 1930s. The KERC worked alongside the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which began a cattle-purchasing program in 1934. Emaciated cattle (as in this photograph) were destroyed after purchase, and healthy cattle were shipped to slaughter with the meat being distributed to poor families needing relief.

Photograph of merchants discussing a deal for beef cattle in the West Bottoms stockyards in Kansas City, Missouri. The northwest corner of the Kansas City Live Stock Exchange building is shown to the left. This vantage point faces southwest towards the Missouri-Kansas border from just west of the Daily Drovers Telegram at 1505 Genessee Street.

Photograph of merchants inspecting cattle in the West Bottoms stockyards in Kansas City, Missouri. This vantage point faces east-northeast towards the Daily Drovers Telegram in the background at 1505 Genessee Street from just east of the Missouri-Kansas border.

Photograph of the stockyards and its covered viaduct, which ran between Genessee Street and the Missouri-Kansas border in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri.
This vantage point faces north just west of the Daily Drovers Telegram.

Photograph of the stockyards in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. This vantage point faces northwest towards Kansas City, Kansas in the far background and was taken west of Genessee Street and east of the Missouri-Kansas border.

Photograph of the stockyards in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. This vantage point was taken just west of Genessee Street and faces west towards the train loading docks across the state border in Kansas City, Kansas.